Meeting with Freemasons, dodging their late dinner

From The Citizen Daily, Dar es Salaam
By Richard Mgamba

Along Post Road in Mwanza stands one of the city’s oldest buildings. It hosts the Ladha Meghji Indian Public Library - a house once used in the 1950s by freedom fighters in East Africa to organise the struggle against colonialism.

During my days as the bureau chief for The Citizen and Mwananchi in the Lake Zone, I was a regular visitor to this building. I would chat with Mr Desai - a teacher- turned librarian, who taught in many secondary schools in Tanzania, including the famous Lake Secondary School, a private school that survived the nationalisation wave. Mr Desai and I have known each other since the 1990s, when I taught History and Economics at this school.

Through Mr Desai, I came to know a prominent businessman called Shah, who was also a frequent visitor to the library. He preferred to go there in the evenings. Mr Shah was a humble but wealthy businessman, by Mwanza standards, and was also a regular reader of The Citizen.

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